Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Are Blog Comments now useless?
-
Hello
I see there is much debate on this issue of Blog Commenting. Is it still a useful way to get a backlink? Would you suggest only using 'No follow' blogs to leave comments?
Many thanks
-
Eliathah - I agree. Blog commenting is extremely inefficient use of time. I wonder how many of the people who promote blog commenting as a method to obtain traffic would pay someone else to put "meaningful comments" on relevant (no-follow) blogs. I wouldn't and I doubt many people would.
-
Yes I'm afraid they are useless when it comes to incorporating them into your SEO stategy.
Better to take the energy you would have expended tracking down do follow comment opportunities and spend it creating rich content like posts, guides, infographic(high quality only) and useful widgets.
Yes it's harder now than pre Panda but good in a way because the barrier for entry is that little bit higher and that gives you an advantage over new starters who want to cut corners and steal your customers.
Good luck, you're going to rock!
-
Blog commenting is a crappy way to spend your time if your goal is to get quality backlinks for SEO purposes. With that said, I have clients that receive substantial (relevant) traffic on a daily basis from blog comments they posted a while ago, so i know first hand that blog comments can drive traffic.
Is it ever the MOST productive and efficient use of your time? Probably not. Not unless you're commenting on blogs you already read regularly. Going out of your way to search for relevant blogs, reading articles you have no interest in besides getting traffic from the comment link, and crafting comments that grab peoples attention and encourage click throughs...? I can only speak for myself, but that doesn't sound like the most effective use of my time.
-
I agree, Simon pretty much summed it up pretty well. I was thinking the question was asking "Is it still a useful way to get a backlink?" which it is but only if done right and not a one time action. We're obviously on the same page though. Thanks for the clarity in your answer.
-
Hi Darin,
We might've gotten confused with the OP's question.
I agree with you of course in marketing terms but the OP's question is referring to backlinks. Backlinks as in SEO not PR. Hence my answer commenting for SEO purposes are useless and not a good idea.
Commenting for marketing and PR is good, but be selective.
-
Comments from William and Darin show the two different types of blog commenting. Let me expand:
Type 1:
Commenting on any blog you can get your hands on linking back to your site (those that will let you): This is the kind of blog commenting that you should avoid like the plague. It will do you no good and will simply be a waste of time these days.
Type 2:
Commenting on blogs that mean something in your industry and commenting with content people want to read: Like with any kind of content, if it is content people want to read it can be valuable. If you are selling running shoes and you build your authority on an athletics blog and your comment is contributing to a conversation and a link to your site is relevant and valuable to the users then by all means this is the kind of blog commenting you want to involve yourself in and can be very beneficial in the long run.
Hope that helps.
-
I have to disagree with William Lau.
I think that blog commenting has changed a bit. It think it is still relevant. I prefer the term Comment Marketing and Link Earning because that is my goal, to market my site and earn links. Here is how I do it now.
I find blogs that are relevant to my industry and of people who I really want to have link to me (authority figures). I follow their blogs and comment regularly on them. My goal is to build up enough trust and awareness of what I am all about. I have two goals here. 1) if my comments are good then people will want to learn more about me and click on my profile/link to go to my site (not so much for SEO purposes but for site traffice) ( I don't care if I'm number one if no one goes to my site. Traffic is important to me. Even better, relevant traffic.) and 2) I want to be able to eventually earn the right to become a guest blogger or have that person read about me and link to my site because of it's good content.
I think the idea of posting a comment for the sake of posting a comment is pointless. SEO is changing (for the better) and SEO now should stand for Search EXPERIENCE Optimization and not Search Engine Optimization. Comment Marketing is relevant if you use it to help build traffic and not to earn "traditional SEO links".
-
Yes, blog spamming is not really a smart idea. Plus majority of blog platforms nofollow comment links.
The only way you will benefit from blog comments are if they actually help the reader and is more of a marketing tactic than SEO.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Blog post outreach for backlinks
Hi all, My understanding of obtaining backlinks by way of blogpost outreach is that it's best to include several outbound links to related high domain websites within blog post copy (as well as a link to the website you're marketing, obviously) such as this post https://www.scoopearth.com/why-should-you-use-royalty-free-music-for-youtube-videos/ or this one https://small-bizsense.com/how-to-create-quality-content-for-your-business/. However, I've recently read a few articles that suggest that from a human perspective only having one clear link in the copy, such as this post https://www.clichemag.com/entertainment/movies/the-benefits-of-royalty-free-cinematic-music-for-your-videos/, increases the chance of the reader visiting the site in question. I guess the thinking is that if there's only one link to be clicked on it increases the chances of click-thru, as opposed to the reader possibly clicking on another external link that's only there because of current SEO advice. So is it best to follow SEO guidelines and include several outbound links within guest blog posts, or is it better to only have the one link to your client's site (to focus the readers attention on it)?
Link Building | | JCN-SBWD0 -
Moving blogs to different domain
Hey guys, We currently have some blogs on one of our pages (fraserisland.com.au) and we are launching a complete rebranding of our sites. We want to move the blogs from fraserisland.com.au to the new parent page of travelfreedom.com.au (but still link it to fraserisland.com.au), however I don't know what affect this will have on the ranking of the blogs. The biggest thing I'm worried about is that the domain will be completely different, and not a sub domain, but I'm not sure what impact this will have on the effectiveness of SEO on the blog. Thanks guys
Link Building | | Mysites0 -
Guest Blogging Question? How many links in an article?
I am being offered by a blog to have more than 5 links in an article that points directly to our money sites. The blog is in the same niche. This is the first time i am being offered more than 2-3 links in an article. Should i do it? How many links should be in an article so not to be penalized by Google? Does it look unnatural to have more links in an article that points to the same site but different pages? Thanks
Link Building | | WayneRooney0 -
Reposting Blog posts on 3rd party sites
We have a few informational blog posts that are valuable to some readers. We have posted them in our blog but were contemplating posting them on 3rd party blogging websites such as Blogger, Squidoo, etc.. Ideally we would continue to maintain these accounts with multiple blog posts, but would all be reposts of the original blog. These are not half english blog posts just hoping to gain a better Google rank. They will provide value to the readers who might not be finding their way to our website directly. Is posting these blog posts on the 3rd party websites, linking back to the original article and maybe some products that are related to the specific document going to negatively affect our rankings due to the duplication of the content?
Link Building | | wishmedia0 -
Should I link from my blog back to my product pages?
Hello... I just installed a blog on my Magento site. My question is whether or not i should be linking within posts on the blog back to the product or category pages that i am talking about...from an SEO perspective. If in my post i am talking about flashlights being important when preparing for a storm, should i link the word flashlights to the flashlight category on my site? I know I can do this, the question is should i, from google's perspective. A) should i link the word (flashlights) to that category on my page B) should i put a line at the bottom of every post that says something like "if you are interested in purchasing flashlights, visit this link" and hyperlink that whole sentence... THANKS!
Link Building | | Prime850 -
Blog. vs /Blog
I need to be able to explain to a client the difference from an SEO perspective between Blog. vs /Blog. www.website.com/Blog vs Blog.website.com The client wants to know which one will help there website with SEO. I belive both will but /Blog will more. I'm looking for a tangible answer only centered around this subject. Thanks,
Link Building | | cfield_splashmedia.com0 -
Separate blog url helpful?
I am managing a website for a hotel brokerage firm. The main URL is www.hotelassetsgroup.com but we started a new blog with the URL www.hotelsforsaleblog.com. We chose the blog URL because it has the words "hotels for sale." The main website has a tab at the top titled "Blog" which links to the blog URL. I am not sure if this is helping us or not because the main URL and blog URL are both competing for the name of the business "Hotel Assets Group." The blog has very little interlinking within the same URL because it mainly links to the main website. Should we combine the two URLs together and just have the blog URL be the same like- hotelassetsgroup.com/blog or something like that?
Link Building | | lwilkins0 -
Too many links in my blog post created by comments. Should I worry?
Every year, we do a popular "Favourite pictures of the year" contest where people vote on the best picture (i.e: their mate's) in order to win something. But I just found that I'm going way over the "Too many links" limit and I think it's because of all the comments. 1. Is it a problem 2. Is there a way to de-activate the links? Thank you! 🙂 Ioan
Link Building | | IoanSaid0